Everything
by CanvasWonder
Summary: Dean was a good brother - he was always a good brother - but when Sam gets sick, he doesn't know what to do; he needs some help, and it won't come in the form he's expecting.


**Prologue**

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Dean Winchester was a good brother, and no one could convince him otherwise; ever since he'd been thrust out the front door with an infant in his arms at the ripe age of four, his world had revolved around making sure nothing with mal intent came within a mile of his baby brother. And, for a long time, his world was simple; even when their dad started drinking, and their lives started to revolve around endless road trips and constant monster-hunts, it was always just a matter of Dean sacrificing his own wishes for Sam. If Sam wanted to spread out in the back and take a nap, Dean would make himself as small as possible to offer more room; if Sam was hungry and in the middle of growth spurt, Dean snuck food from his own plate onto Sam's when his younger sibling wasn't looking; if there were only two beds for three men, Dean took the floor.

When Sam turned sixteen, the world got a lot more complicated.

It started out with little things at first; the first noticeable difference was that Sam started sleeping a lot more, and never seemed to shake his exhaustion. Dean blamed it on teenage hormones and a possible – God forbid the kid get any taller – growth spurt, and Sam agreed that maybe his study habits were affecting his sleep ones. So Dean let it roll of his back and the brothers took to the road once more, John off on his own hunt only God knows where while Sam worked on finishing school.

Sam's drowsy habits only grew worse with time though, and not only were they affecting him at school- he was making stupid mistakes on hunts, one that ended in Dean taking a nasty hit to the head as he shoved Sam out the way of an angry baseball players spirit; the bat split in two when it hit, but Dean's head remained in one piece. Rather than lecture the kid about hunting-while-sleepy though, Dean let him off easy; no more hunting until school was over.

Things really started to pick up when Dean had to retrieve Sam from school late that November; the kid had gotten up to present his history project and, instead, redecorated his teacher's shoes with that morning's breakfast. Usually Dean would poke fun at his brother for his inability to speak in front of a crowd, but when Sam climbed into the Impala looking like he'd just been through the ringer and tucked himself into Dean's side the way he hadn't since he was six… Dean put an arm around his baby brother, and he just drove.

Sam was too sick to go to school by the time December came around, and Dean was worried enough to call his father for help. When the Winchesters met at the Roadhouse – an old hunter establishment run by a feisty blonde named Ellen Harvelle – Sam was pale, shaky, and rushing for the bathroom. With the help of Ash, the Roadhouse's local genius, John and Dean came up with a few results on the internet and diagnosed Sam with a nasty stomach virus that had been violently sweeping the nation that year. John left that evening to get back to his hunt, while Sam and Dean hunkered down in a spare room to wait out the bug.

The trouble was… The bug never went away.

Sam got worse; he lost an easy fifteen pounds and refused to eat to replace the weight. He spent most of his time curled in bed watching TV with a glazed expression, and – true to Winchester nature – he kept his complaints to a minimum until it was too late.

When Dean found him lying on the bathroom floor, there was enough blood to suggest an attempted suicide.

The trip to the hospital was hazy, and the time spent in the waiting just as unclear, but Dean could remember the very second his world came crumbling down around him; it was December 17th, 10:14 p.m. when the doctors explained that Sam was suffering from an acute stomach cancer.

Dean was a good big brother, and no one could tell him otherwise; but there were just some things he couldn't protect his little brother from.

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**Well! Here's a new fanfiction. Fear not, there are still updates to come on ****_Novak No More_****. This will be a destiel fic, I promise, but there will also be alot of brotherly love in this. **

**Enjoyed it? Leave me a comment!**

**-CCW**


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